bible_bhtl

 

BIBLICAL HISTORICAL TIME LINE

by Ray Shelton

 

I.  INTRODUCTION – The Problem

What is the historical time line in the Bible?

 

II.  ANALYSIS OF PROBLEM

This problem is made up of several problems:

1.  When was man created?

2.  When did the flood occur?

3.  When did the patriarchs live?

4.  When did the exodus occur?

5.  When did the monarchy begin?

6.  When did the kingdom divide?

7.  When did the Babylonian captivity take place?

8.  When did the birth, death, and resurrection Jesus take place?

 

In the following sections we will deal with the first four problems and in particular with the first problem. In later sections we will deal with the birth of Jesus.

 

III.  CLUE TO SOLUTION

Analysis of Biblical data. Genealogies:

Genesis 5,
Genesis 11,
Exodus 6,


Historically there have been several possible interpretations of the genealogical records in Genesis 5 and 11:10-32. The literal interpretation was the method advocated and used by Bishop James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland, in his Annales Vereris et Novi Testamenti in 1650-1654; he calculated a chronology that was later inserted into the margin of the Oxford edition of King James Version published in 1679 and in the General Edition of the English Bible, published in 1701. This was repeated in many later editions of the Authorized English Version, better known as the King James Version. The distinguish Greek scholar and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, John Lightfoot (1602-1675), in 1642 had already deduced the moment of creation was “9.00 o’clock in the morning on September seventeenth.” He did not at that time indicate the year of creation. Later in 1644 he stated that it was 3928 B.C. Still later, following the work of Ussher, Lightfoot figured out that creation took place during the week of October 18 to 24, 4004 B.C., with Adam being created on October 23 at 9:00 A.M., forty-fifth meridian time.

This interpretation assumes that the Biblical chronological data follows the modern system of consecutive arrangement without overlapping, and not the early Babylonian system that dated events with respect to the day, month, and regal year of the king. By adding the time between the births of the patriarchs, so that there are 1656 years from the creation of Adam to the flood and 290 years from the flood to Abraham’s birth, Ussher calculated a total of 1946 years from creation to Abraham, Adding the two years of Gen. 11:10 and dating the birth of Abraham at 2056 B.C., Ussher arrived at 4004 B.C. as the date of creation. This view implies that Shem was not the eldest son of Noah born 100 years before the flood as implied in Gen. 5:32 (see 7:6, 11). A recent update of this traditional consecutive system, dating the birth of Abraham at 2166 B.C., computes the date of the flood at 2518 B.C. and the creation at 4177 B.C.

This literal interpretation gives a date for the creation that seems to disagree with archaeological finds from Near Eastern sites which have been dated earlier than 4004 B.C. (for example, Jericho, Byblos, Jarmo). Also the date of the flood at about 2300 B.C., as required by Ussher’s chronology, is not supported by archaeological evidence, even if Wooley’s discovery of the flood level at Ur (dated about 3100 B.C.) indicates more than a local inundation.

In order to resolve these difficulties, another system of interpretation has been proposed that assumes that the genealogies in Genesis and in the rest of the Bible are “genealogical-histories” (Hebrew, toledoth) that are not intended to furnish a continuous list; the term “son” is said to denote either a direct son, grandson, or a remote descendant. Support is found for this view in the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew 1:8, which by saying that Joram begat Uzziah (KJV, Ozias), omits the three kings Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah (I Chron. 3:11-12 [Uzziah also called Azariah]) and thus passes over two generations. According to this view, in the genealogies only prominent members of the family are named, but sufficient to insure the unbroken chain between Adam and Abraham, the father of Hebrew people. It is argued that such abbreviated lists are just as valuable for showing descent as are the more modern and more complete lists. Also the grouping of names by tens in Genesis 5 and 11 (note the groups of seven in Matthew) may be accounted for and explained as an aid to memory and for oral tradition. According to this view, the dates of such events as the creation of man or the flood cannot be decided by biblical data alone. This view assumes that there are gaps in the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11, with the term “begat” (Hebrew, yalad) implying ancestry with an unknown number of intervening generations rather than immediate parental relationship.

Another variation of this “genealogical gap theory” is the view that the names in the Genesis tables denotes both individual ancestor and his collective family in such a way that the names of Israel and David stood both for the man and his descendants (I Kings 12:16). Thus the names in Genesis 10 are taken to be sometimes actual individual and sometimes the name of a place by that name. When this theory is applied to a period in which successive families held sway, such as Genesis 5 and 11, the time from Adam to the flood may have taken as long as a period of thousands of years with gaps between the families. This allows for a long period of time between Adam and the flood and between the flood and Abraham to account for the long time periods from geological sedimentation data and the fossils.

The discovery of cuneiform tablets from Assyria seems to support the view that the names in the genealogical lists are not just individual ancestors but are also collective family names. The Assyrian genealogical lists contain the names of eponym (limmu), a leader, who is usually the king or an official of high rank, by which the Assyrians dated the events each year. An eponym is a person for whom a period of time has been named: just as our Lord Jesus, for example, is the eponym for which our period of time is named, that is, A.D. (Latin, Anno Domini) “in the year of our Lord”, in the period of time since Christ was born. The Assyrians appointed an official to be limmu or eponym, giving his name for period of time of his office. They kept lists of these names and noted down events under his name, such as king’s accession or his foreign campaign. Thus the time of any event can be dated by reference to the year of the eponym. Clay tablets from Nineveh and other Assyrian cities lists the names of these leaders, along with consecutive years of Assyrian history. For example, an eclipse of the sun in the year of the eponym Bur-Segale, the governor of Guzana, in the month of Simanu, is recorded in the lists. Astronomers tell us that this eclipse occurred on June 15, 763 B.C., thus fixing a whole series of years and events from 892 B.C. to 648 B.C., with events reaching back to 911 B.C. Along with these limmu-lists, there are king-lists giving the names and reigns of kings that take Assyrian history back to 2000 B.C., with a maximum error of a century that narrows to a decade from about 1400 B.C. until 1100 B.C. A tablet about the Assyrian eponym Daian-Assur says that he governed during the sixth year of Shalmaneser III. In the same year, the Assyrians fought an important battle at Qarqar against a group of kings from the Mediterranean coast, and the tablet lists King Ahab of Israel among them. Other information from the Assyrian lists sets the date of the battle, and of Ahab’s death, at 853 B.C. These kings-lists do not support the genealogical gap theory.

The genealogies of chapter 5 and 11 of Genesis have a similar structure. For each individual in these genealogies the following items are recorded:

1.  their name,

2.  the fact of their birth (except Adam),

3.  how long they lived before they begat the son to continue the genealogy,

4.  how long they lived after they begat this son,

5.  the total years of their life,

6.  their death (except Enoch who was translated).


In addition to these facts for each patriarch, for only three of these patriarchs (Adam, Seth, and Noah) is it recorded that they were named by their fathers (or God) (Gen. 5:2, 3, 29); the phrase “called his name”, which is in the Hebrew “qara shem“, is used. For example, for the birth of Seth, it says in Gen. 5:3-5 (KJV),

“3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years,  and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image;  and called his name Seth;
4 And the days of Adam after had begotten Seth were eight hundred years;  and he begat sons and daughters;   5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.”


For no other patriarch in these lists beside Adam, Seth and Noah is this phrase “called his name” used. Compare this with the next patriarch Enos (Enosh) after Seth,

“6 And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos;  7 And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters;   8 And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years:  and he died.”    (Gen. 5:6-9 KJV).


Note that Seth does not call the name of his son “Enos”, like Adam called the name of his son “Seth”. This indicates that Enos was not the direct son of Seth as Seth was the direct son of Adam. Similarly, for the next six patriarchs the phrase “called his name” is omitted. But when Lamech begat Noah the phrase is used to indicate that Noah is the direct son of Lamech:

“28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:   29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.  30 And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:   31 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years:  and he died.”    (Gen. 5:28-31 KJV).


Noah in this case is the immediate son of Lamech. A search of the Scriptures shows no instance where such a phrase occurs in connection with the naming of person, that the person named was not an immediate child or was not immediately related to the person naming. Many examples can be given where the person being named is the immediate child of the person naming. For example, “Abraham called the name of his son … Isaac.” (Gen. 21:3). “And they called his name Esau.” (Gen. 25:25). And the phrase is used in naming of the sons of Jacob (Gen. 29:32-35). It is also used in Genesis 38 when the five sons of Judah are named (Gen. 38:3-5, 29-30). And of course it is used in Gen. 5:2 where God named the man that he had created “Adam.” From all this evidence it is quite clear that whenever this phrase “qara shem” is used, it is certain that an immediate child or son is being described and not a grandson or some remote descendant. But the omission of this phrase could indicate that the birth of a grandson or some remote descendant is being indicated, or of an immediate son. For example, in Genesis 5:32 it is said, “And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, Japheth.” But even though the phrase “qara shem” is not used here, we know from the context that they were immediate sons.

“On the same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark.”    (Gen. 7:13 NAS).

“18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan.
19 These are the three sons of Noah, of them the whole earth overspread.”    (Gen. 9:18-19 KJV).


Also in I Pet. 3:20 we read that there were eight souls in the ark. These verses make clear that Shem, Ham, and Japheth were the immediate sons of Noah, and not some distant descendants. But without this context this should not be assumed. Now, for example, if we assume the opposite that all the descendants in the postdiluvian genealogies are direct, immediate sons of their patriarchs, then all the postdiluvian patriarchs, including Noah, would be still alive when Abram was fifty years old; and three of those who were born before the earth was divided (Shem, Shelah, and Eber) would actually outlived Abram; and Eber, the father of Peleg, not only would outlive Abram, but would have lived for two years after Jacob arrived in Mesopotamia to work for Laban. If this is true, such a situation would be astonishing, if not incredible. This conclusion is obviously wrong, and the premise on which it is based must be wrong. The Hebrew word (yalad) translated “begat” does not mean that there is an immediate father-son relationship. Consequently, the immediate father-sonship meaning of the Hebrew word translated “begat” as used in Genesis 5 and 11 must be replaced with some other relationship.



IV.  SOLUTION

Harold Camping in his book Adam When? has proposed that the son born to a patriarch is the direct ancestor of the next patriarch, not the direct son unless the phrase “qara shem” is used, and that the year of the death of one patriarch is the year of the birth of the successor patriarch. For example, according to Gen. 11:16-17 (KJV),

“16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:   17 And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years,
and begat sons and daughters.”


That is, when the patriarch Eber was 34, he “begat” the ancestor of the next patriarch, Peleg. And since Genesis does not record that Eber “called his name Peleg”, then Peleg was not necessarily the direct son of Eber. The name of the ancestor of Peleg was not essential to the record of the patriarchs, but only the names of the patriarchs, and to indicate that the patriarchs are related. The important thing in this genealogy is that the patriarchal successor of Eber is Peleg, and that Peleg was the direct descendant of Eber, and that Eber at the age of 34 gave birth to person who was the progenitor of the Peleg line. And in the language of each entry in the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 there is a formula for calculating a chronology; that is, “‘A‘ lived x years and begat ‘B‘, and ‘A’ lived after he begat ‘B‘ y years” and the sum (x + y) is the life span of the patriarch ‘A‘. And the year of death of patriarch ‘A‘ is the year of birth of patriarch ‘B‘. This holds for all the entries in the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 except where the phrase “called his name” occurs: Adam begetting Seth, Seth begetting Enosh, and Lamech begetting Noah.

Genesis 5:32 declares that Noah is 500 years old when he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth. These three sons of Noah were not all born at the same time; they were not triplets. Since Genesis 10:21 (KJV, NIV) refers to Japheth as the older brother of Shem, Shem must be the younger brother of Japheth and the older brother of Ham, since the descendants of Japheth are recorded first in chapter 10 of Genesis (and I Chron. 1:5-7). In Genesis 11:10 it is said that when Shem was 100 years old, he “became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood.” Now Genesis 7:6 says, “And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.” And since Noah was 600 years at the time of the flood and the birth of Arpachshad was two years after the flood, the birth of Arpachshad occurred in the six hundred and second year of Noah; that is, 600 + 2 = 602. Now this birth of Arpachshad occurred when Shem was 100 years old, then Shem must have been born when Noah was 502 years old; that is, 602 – 100 = 502.

Now let us look at the birth of Abram.   Genesis 11:26-28 (KJV) declares,

“26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.   27 Now these are the generations of Terah:   Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran begat Lot.   28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity,  in Ur of Chaldees.”


And verse 31 continues,

“31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan;  and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years:  and Terah died in Haran.”


Although Genesis 11:26 indicates that all three of Terah’s sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran, were born when Terah was 70 years old, this does not mean that all three of these sons of Terah were born at same time as triplets. This can be seen from the following. According to Genesis 11:32, Terah died in Haran at the age of 205 years. And according to Act 7:4b Abram left Haran after Terah’s death and, according to Genesis 12:4, Abram left Haran at the age of 75. Therefore Abram was actually born when Terah was 130 years old: 205 – 75 = 130. Thus Abram was not born at the same time as his brothers Nahor and Haran but after them; either Nahor or Haran was born when their father Terah was 70. My guess is that Haran was born first since he died first and Abram was born last, the youngest. In these genealogies, Abram is probably named first, as Shem was, because he was the important person in God’s plan of redemption for man.

Now let us compute the chronology from the division of kingdom at the death of Solomon to Adam. According to Edwin R. Thiele in his book The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951], the division of the kingdom at the death of Solomon took place in 931 B.C. Since Solomon reigned 40 years (I Kings 11:42) and began to building the temple in the fourth year of his reign (I Kings 6:1), this building began in 967 B.C. (931 + 36 = 967). This is a very important passage because it gives a time bridge to the Exodus from Egypt. According to I Kings 6:1 (NAS),

“Now it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.”


This time bridge of 480 years brings us to 1447 B.C. (967 + 480 = 1447) as the date of the Exodus from Egypt. And according Exodus 12:40-41 (NAS),

“40 Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.  41 And it came about at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.”

 

Click on Names Below to Reveal Dates

 

Click here for a summary of this patriarchal chronology of the period from Adam to Abraham.


V.  CONFIRMATION

This time line agrees with the archaeological evidence as well as with the Biblical data. Additional evidence for the patriarchal calendars of Genesis 5 and 11 is to be found in the genealogical tables in Exodus 6:16-20 (KJV):

“16 And these are names of the sons of Levi according to their generations:   Gerson, and Kohath, and Merari;  and the years of the life of Levi were an one hundred and thirty and seven years.  17 The sons of Gerson; Libin, and Shimi, according to their families.  18 And the sons of Kohath; Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel:  and the years of life of Kohath were an hundred and thirty and three years.  19 And the sons of Merari; Mahali and Mushi:  these are the families of Levi according to generations.  20 And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife;  and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven.”


This passage, Exodus 6:16-19, refers to the generations of Levi by name, but significantly Kohath and Amram are the only two patriarchs whose ages have been written into this genealogical record. Obviously the family of Levi from Kohath to Amram and finally to Aaron was the patriarchal family selected for 430 years of Israel in Egypt (Exodus 12:40-41) to establish the calendar for this period. This is similar to the records given Genesis 5 and 11 for their forefathers before Abraham.

Assuming in this genealogical record that since an immediate father-son relation is not indicate, the relation is one that relates individual patriarchs each living their entire lifetime as the family heads. Applying this principle to the family of Levi here in Exodus 6:16-19, we have the genealogical sequence for Levi. The 137 years of Levi are followed by the 133 years of Kohath which in turn are followed by the 137 years of Amram; and Amram was followed by Aaron. Aaron was 83 years old at the time of the Exodus (Ex. 7:7). But this adds up to more than 430 years (Exodus 12:40-41): 137 + 133 + 137 + 83 = 490. This excess of 60 years is due to the fact that Levi was not born at the time that Jacob’s family entered Egypt. How old was Levi when Jacob’s family entered Egypt? Levi must have been 60 years old when he entered Egypt. Since he died at the age of 137 (Ex. 6:16), then 77 years of his life would have been spent in Egypt (137 – 60 = 77). Thus Levi lived 77 years in Egypt after Jacob’s family entered Egypt. Assuming the death year of a patriarch is the birth year of the next patriarch, we have the following elements of the patriarchal chronology of Israel’s time in Egypt;

 

 

Levi’s time in Egypt77 years
Kohath’s patriarchal period133 years
Amram’s patriarchal period137 years
Aaron’s age at the time of Exodus83 years
—————————————-————
Total430 years

 

 

This agrees exactly with Exodus 12:40-41 where Israel’s stay in Egypt is given as 430 years. Thus the assumption of patriarchal periods that starts with the birth of the patriarch at the death of the previous patriarch is confirmed.

Note that Levi must have been 21 years older than Joseph who was 39 when Jacob’s family entered Egypt and Levi was 60 when Jacob’s family entered Egypt (60 – 39 = 21). Joseph was 30 when he was made ruler over Egypt (Gen. 41:46) and it was during the second year of the famine, or nine years later when he revealed himself to his brothers (Gen. 45:6) and thus Joseph was 39 when Jacob’s family entered Egypt.

 

VI.  APPENDIX

Cainan. The Hebrew text of the Scriptures does not mention Cainan’s life in the Genesis 10 or 11 or I Chronicles 1. But there is a statement about him in the Septuagint version of Gen. 10:24 and 11:12-13, as well as I Chron. 1:18. Luke 3:36 also mentions him. The Septuagint in Genesis 11:12-13 indicates that Cainan was 130 years old at the birth of Salah and lived 330 years beyond Salah’s birth. Thus Cainan life is a total of 460 years (130 + 330 = 460).

These figures create several problems. Why does the Septuagint include Cainan in its list, while the Hebrew text does not? Could there be gaps in the genealogical lists in the Hebrew text? If so, it would appear that the lists of Genesis 5 and 11 are not complete list, but are the selection of certain outstanding men. In addition, the time span from the Flood to the entrance of Abraham into Canaan would be 460 years longer. Since the discovery of Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls), the Masoretic (Hebrew) text has been view as probably authentic.